Choppa: Rescue Rivals does not reinvent the side-scrolling action game, and its occasional difficulty spikes can interrupt an otherwise relaxed rhythm. What it does offer is a polished, funny, and consistently creative campaign built around controls that simply feel good. The changing tools keep the rescues lively, the presentation is bursting with charm, and unlocking a helicopter shaped like a pug never stopped being funny.
Duskfade is a lovely return to a style of game that deserves more attention. Its combat is fairly simple and its influences are obvious, but neither issue stopped me from loving the adventure. The gorgeous environments, smart level design, satisfying secrets, and excellent traversal make it an easy recommendation for anyone who misses classic 3D action platformers.
Akatori is not a bad metroidvania. Its visual direction is memorable, Mako is fun to control, and the boss fights show how good the game can be when its systems work together. But its shallow rewards, weak ability gating, awkward healing economy, repetitive regular combat, and inconsistent Ally X performance hold it back.
Doloc Town is still built around the familiar cycle of planting, watering, harvesting, selling, and expanding, so anyone who has played another farming simulator will understand it immediately. What makes it special is everything constructed around that loop. Vertical farming is clever, platforming changes how you interact with the world, ability-gated exploration gives upgrades more purpose, and the post-apocalyptic town has real charm.
Turnip Mountain is fantastic. It takes a funny premise and an intentionally awkward control scheme, then builds a smart, steadily evolving platformer around them. A few difficulty spikes may test your patience, but the overwhelming majority of the climb feels demanding, fair, and rewarding. Reaching the summit left me wanting more levels, and I genuinely hope future DLC gives this strange little vegetable another mountain to conquer.
Lunarium is a great game held back by some stupid difficulty. I love its hand-drawn world, the interplay between Ave and Lune, the satisfying sword combat, and the flexibility of its cloaks and Embroideries. I also desperately hope its most severe difficulty spikes and combat inconsistencies are improved after launch. The foundation is too good to let a handful of frustrating encounters undermine the entire experience.
The Caribou Trail will not work for anyone expecting Battlefield, Call of Duty, or even a mechanically rich adventure game. Its interactions are basic, its path is linear, and some repetitive prompts last too long. But if you enjoy focused narrative games, it tells a powerful story about friendship, pain, and the small pieces of humanity people cling to when the world has gone mad. I enjoyed my time with it, and its final moments stayed with me long after the credits rolled.
If you already loved the first game, maybe this sequel gives you the extra systems and structure you wanted. Coming in fresh, I enjoyed the mining and spider-defense idea far more than I enjoyed the actual climb. There is a solid, addictive game buried in Wall World 2, but it asks for too much grind before it starts paying you back. I cannot fully recommend it, even though parts of it are absolutely my kind of thing.
The Midnight Walk knows what it wants to be. It wants to be an atmospheric, handcrafted, slightly creepy storybook adventure about carrying light through darkness. For me, that was enough. The Midnight Walk is stunning, strange, heartfelt, and visually unforgettable. Its mechanics are simple, and one audio-focused idea did not land for me without the right setup, but the journey itself stuck with me.
007 First Light is a confident, cinematic, mechanically varied and genuinely exciting Bond game that respects the franchise without being trapped by it. Most importantly, it made me believe in this new Bond. By the time he earns the number, it feels deserved. IO Interactive has built a modern 007 origin story that captures the fantasy, updates the stakes, and gives the character room to grow. This is one of the best games of the year, one of the best Bond games ever made, and easily one of my favorite PS5 experiences in a long time.
33 Immortals is a game I admire more than I love. The concept is excellent. The first few hours are exciting. The large-scale co-op roguelite structure feels fresh, and the Divine Comedy framing gives it a memorable identity. But the in-run upgrades, relics, and meta progression are too conservative for the kind of game this wants to be.
If you like creature collecting, build crafting, and third-person shooters with personality, Voidling Bound is really easy to recommend. The amount of Voidling customization is kind of insane, the combat feels punchy, the missions are fun, and the whole thing runs beautifully on ROG Xbox Ally X.
There is a real game here, and there is a clear vision behind it. For fans of old-school survival horror who are hungry for fixed cameras, oppressive silence, and lonely exploration, Hollowbody is worth checking out, especially on sale. Just go in expecting a strong mood piece more than a fully satisfying horror story.
If you liked the first Moonlighter, this is an easy recommendation even in early access. If you never played the original but enjoy cozy roguelites with satisfying progression and a smart economy loop, this is absolutely worth watching. I went in hoping the sequel would still have that same addictive spark, and after several runs, several shop days, and many questionable pricing decisions, yeah, it definitely does.
WILL: Follow The Light is not a clean hit, but I enjoyed it. It has a strong premise, beautiful locations, enjoyable sailing, and enough emotional ambition to make the journey worthwhile. It also has awkward story transitions, shallow puzzles, and themes that needed clearer focus. If you like slow narrative adventures and do not mind some rough edges, there is something here worth experiencing, especially on Series X.
Luna Abyss surprised me in the best way. It looks familiar for about five seconds, then reveals itself as something much stranger, smarter, and more exciting. The combat has a brilliant rhythm, the movement feels phenomenal, the world is wonderfully bizarre, and the level design constantly rewards curiosity and confidence. It is one of those games where the phrase "FPS with a twist" actually means something.
The weapon mods are clever, the world is fun to poke around in, the pixel art has personality, and the basic loop of finding gear and slowly becoming stronger works. But the rough technical state, weak map, uneven pacing, and occasional difficulty spikes make it harder to recommend without caveats.
Slots & Daggers takes a small idea and squeezes a surprising amount of entertainment out of it. It is clever without being exhausting, lucky without feeling mindless, and tactile in all the right ways. If you like roguelites, slot-machine chaos, or buildcrafting that gets to the point fast, this is absolutely worth spinning up.
Duck Side of the Moon is not going to challenge you, and it is not trying to. It is a sweet, funny, relaxed exploration game about helping rock aliens, mining space minerals, dressing up a duck, and slowly fixing a busted ship. The missing map keeps it from feeling as frictionless as it should, but everything else lands with enough charm that I still kinda loved my time with it.
Elementallis has its rough edges, and the map system is easily the biggest one. I would love a modern optional layer with better markers, clearer objective tracking, or at least a more readable player icon. But the core adventure is strong enough that I kept pushing through the annoyance. The powers are clever, the world is fun to poke at, the temples scratch the right puzzle-solving itch, and the presentation is beautiful.